Blackberry Posts a Small Profit, Reveals New Phones

[ThePointblank]

This is from CBC.ca and Crackberry.com:

 

From CBC.ca:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/blackberry-shares-rise-after-surprisingly-strong-quarter-1.2679811

 

 

BlackBerry posted a slight profit of $23 million US in the three months to the end of May, a performance that was better than what analysts were expecting and enough to push the company's shares higher on the TSX.
 

The Waterloo, Ont.-based smartphone maker, which reports in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted, posted a loss of 11 cents a share when the accounting is adjusted for the impact of a cost-cutting program and a change in the value of the company's debentures, but the positive net income figure was welcomed warmly by investors as an improvement on the loss of $84 million in the same period a year ago.

Revenues dropped by $10 million to $966 million, down from $977 million in the previous quarter, although the company's cash and investments balance for the first quarter was $3.1 billion, up from $2.7 billion at the end of the previous quarter.
 

The company's annual general meeting kicked off on Thursday morning, a few hours after the quarterly numbers were released before stock markets opened.

During the quarter, BlackBerry booked revenue for about 1.6 million smartphone sales, which is an increase from the revenue from 1.3 million devices a quarter earlier.
 

The results demonstrate that the company is "firmly on track to achieve important milestones, including our financial objectives and delivering a strong product portfolio," CEO John Chen said.​
 

"Everything BlackBerry does is about security — we will not lose that fight," he said.

When asked what the odds of the company's survival are, he said they're looking pretty good, but not for certain. "When we start making money, I'll give it 100 per cent," Chen quipped.
 

During the quarter ended May 31, the company launched the Z3, a low-cost touchscreen smartphone, in Indonesia​, a market that Chen described as "huge" for BlackBerry.

According to Chen, sales of the  Z3 were exceeding expectations, but he would not disclose exact numbers.
 

“We originally expected to do a million phones, we’re going to do better than that,” said Chen, indicating that the numbers were expected over the lifetime of the device.

BlackBerry shares gained more than $1, or almost 11 per cent, to $10.03 on the TSX on Thursday.

New BlackBerry phones
 

Chen also offered a glimpse at what the company has up its sleeve moving forward, including a large phone known as the Passport, which looks a little like a cross between a small tablet and a large phone.
 

“I would like to call it a phablet, the reason I couldn’t call it a phablet today is because marketing won’t let me, that’s number one,” joked Chen. “Secondly because you have to go clear some of the FCC certifications and so forth, but it really is the beginning of our phablet.”

Chen hinted the phone, code named Windermere would also have a mobile-reader capabilities. “You can read a book like you’re flipping the page,” he said. 
 

But Canadians will have to wait to get their hands on the large phone.

“We’re going to launch this first in Europe. The Europeans love it,” said Chen, who said the company is planning to launch the phone in September.

Looking ahead
 

Chen said the company hopes to be at the break-even level financially by the end of this fiscal year, and hopes to return to profitability within two years.

“BBM, as I said, we now have a reasonable plan to expect next year we could go a $100 million, gross a $100 million in revenue,” said Chen, explaining the revenue expected for the next fiscal year would come from sources that would include BBM Protected, mobile payment systems like BBM Money in Indonesia, the EnStream mobile payments deal, and working with advertising placement companies to sell advertising on BBM channels.
 

Earlier this week, BlackBerry announced a partnership with the Amazon Appstore that will allow users access to apps like Pinterest and Netflix, and last week touted the mobile-payment deal with EnStream, a joint venture between Bell, Rogers and Telus.

“For the first time we finally quote unquote solved a big part of our application ecosystem problems,” said Chen of the Amazon deal.
 

Chen said the company is at the tail-end of the layoffs announced in September 2013, when the company said it would be cutting 4500 workers from its global workforce.

“I’m actually in the process of focusing on hiring. That’s why I went to the University of Waterloo and said, ‘I want co-ops and I want students, graduating students.’ And I’m doing that pretty much around the world, we’re now re-staffing,” said Chen.
 

“I’ll probably start modestly because of the challenges we were just talking about earlier, probably a few hundred, and just go from there.”

 

This is very good news for Blackberry, as phone shipments are up (particularly Blackberry 10 devices), revenue decline has slowed down dramatically, the gross margin has improved, operating expenses declined by 13%, and on hand cash has improved by $400 million dollars. This means the company is on a stronger financial footing.

 

On the topic of new phones, Blackberry showed off two new phones, called BlackBerry Classic and the BlackBerry Passport (previously codenamed Windermere). While Blackberry Classic is already well known as the phone that will return to the traditional and familiar Blackberry physical layout, Passport is more of a 'phablet'. Moving into FY15, Blackberry will offer three phones:

 

From Crackberry.com:

 

 

The Z3 has already launched in some markets as a lower cost phone and was built in partnership with Foxconn.

The Blackberry Classic draws upon design cues from the old Blackberry Bold and is targeted at users of the older Blackberry's but want an updated model. Classic is being targeted for a November 2014 launch.

 

The Blackberry Passport is a new phablet-styled phone, with a physical keyboard. Previous rumours indicate Passport has a 1400x1400 display on a 4.5-inch screen, with a 3450mAh battery, and 13-megapixel camera. Passport is intended for release in September. To give a sense of how wide the phone is, below is a picture of CEO John Chen holding up a working prototype:

 

 

You can see more pictures of the two new phones announced below at the link:

 

http://crackberry.com/blackberry-ceo-john-chen-shows-upcoming-blackberry-passport-and-blackberry-classic-smartphones

[Flight1sim]

ew....

I dont like blackberries...

Old fashioned, and wide, and just.... UGLY

[MangoJuiceStain]

Why is it so... wide?

[Victorious Secret]

Why is it so... wide?

 

TWSS

[MangoJuiceStain]

TWSS

LOL

[Heisenbleurgh]

I had one very similar to the Classic once, it's probably the most comfortable phone keyboard I've ever used. Going from that to a touch screen was pretty terrible (but at least I have SwiftKey now). I wish they didn't try so hard with their 'exclusivity' and limiting the available apps and software so much.

[pixeldensity]

the crackberry looks like they were on crack when coming up with it.Even the guy on the left of the pic looks like he think what the hell is that

[Majinferno]

I wish they'd just make the physical keyboard an optional add-on. The blackberry's design is really holding it down mainly because most people are now used to the full touch screen display.

The passports a nice concept, but I don't think it will be as widely accepted. I wish they'd focus on making another z10.

[dizmo]

The Passport is way, way way too wide. And the edges are too sharp. The thing is hideous. I have no idea what they're thinking with that one.

[ionbasa]

The Z3 is actually a good looking phone. If the bootloader is modifiable people can start booting Android on these devices.

 

Personally, I would want blackberry to develop their own branch of Android, that would mean all the Android Apps are compatible from the get go.

[Machine66]

The Z3 is actually a good looking phone. If the bootloader is modifiable people can start booting Android on these devices.

 

Personally, I would want blackberry to develop their own branch of Android, that would mean all the Android Apps are compatible from the get go.

Firstly, QNX is, and will always be better, faster more secure than any Android OS. Second since the update to 10.2 OS you can already install almost all Android apps without sideloading now (only ones that use google services right now won't work correctly, but that may be corrected in a future update.)

[Warcony]

I can't decide if the Passport is awesome or just plain ugly.  Will have to check it out when it's released.  The classic seems like one last ditch effort to get BBOS 7 users to upgrade to BB10.

[kuddlesworth9419]

Well if you want a keyboard on your phone that is your only option. I just wished it was android.

[Socky]

Well, good BB is making some profit. I'd hate to see them go down. But I don't think they will become what they were before. They reached their peak back in 07 or some time around there. I could definitely see them take over the business side of the mobile device world. Since they have been known to do so.

[Mooshi]

 

 

 

MP3 Player

Outdated

Bad Photoshop made a reality

 

What are they thinking?

[Common_Courtesy]

Uh I kinda like the z3 and the classic *slowly backs into a hedge*

[Panda689]

Seeing the classic makes me wish they would release a version with android. I miss the buttons on my BB Curve, I could type out texts and emails faster than I can with my S3 even after having the thing for 3 years.

[delanyinspiron6400]

I can't wait for the Passport, it's going to be awesome!

[JAKEBAB]

Its nice to see them making a profit and i could of sworn ive seen those phones before I actually don't mind the look of the passport and i hate big phones I dunno it just kinda reminds of like one of those retro "smart phones" but with a modern look.

[fringie]

With phones like the OnePlus One coming out I can no longer stay with Blackberry. The journey ends with the Blackberry Bold 9790 for me. I really do love the classic layout though, great keyboard + touch features = ftw.